Nuffield Australia State Committees

New South Wales:

Guy Hebblewhite – Chair (2013 Scholar)Guy Hebblewhite, from Tamworth, received the 2013 Nuffield Scholarship supported by the RIRDC Chicken Meat Program. Guy studied broiler management and cost reduction in his business using renewable energy, travelling over 18 months to countries including Canada, the USA, UK, Germany and the Netherlands. With his wife Genene, three children and staff, Guy grows meat chickens across two northern NSW properties. In addition, the family business runs a beef and sheep enterprise. Read Guy’s report.

Nicky Mann – Vice Chair (2014 Scholar)Nicky and her husband Wade and family are hydroponic rose growers on the Central Coast. They own and operate a business called Roses 2 Go Pty Ltd, which we began in 2002 after immigrating to Australia from Zimbabwe. Roses 2 Go Pty Ltd won Florist of the Year in consecutive years from 2007 to 2010 and Business of the Year in 2014 for the Wyong Shire. Nicky also sits on a number of industry boards including the Protected Cropping Australia Board. Read Nicky’s report

Bruce Watson – Secretary (2009 Scholar)Bruce is married to Karina and they are grain producers based at Parkes. Bruce studied ‘Commodity Price Risk Management in Australia’ to investigate why there were increases in global grain prices in 2007/08 and whether they would remain at lofty levels into the future. He met with farmers, grain merchants, academics, futures traders, end users, risk management advisors, and bankers. Read Bruce’s report

Andrew Freeth – Treasurer (2015 Scholar)
Andrew Freeth, from Collie, received the 2015 Nuffield Scholarship supported by the Grains Research and Development Program. Andrew studied investment in on-farm grain storage and supply chain logistics. Andrew works in his family’s 5000-ha dryland broadacre cropping and livestock enterprise, and is involved in all aspects of the business, including crop production, grain marketing, and livestock work.

Northern Territory:

Han Shiong Siah – Chair (2015 Scholar)Han is based at Humpty Doo and has studied alternate and cost-effective methods to control flying feral vermin. Han is the farm manager and agronomist for Tropical Primary Products, a family-owned and operated business specialising in tropical fruit production. The main crops on the 220-ha property are mangoes, durians, jackfruits and pomelos, while other lesser-known tropical fruit also feature. They also have an active mango-breeding project, with their first commercial variety (TPP1) being widely available in green grocers and major Australian supermarket chains.

Lorre Herrod – Secretary (2011 Scholar)Lorre Herrod is from Katherine in the Northern Territory. She manages the 20,000 acre Ballongilly Station, a family business run in conjunction with Western Creek Station, which is 1,100 sq km where they manage Brahman stud cattle. She focussed on cattle production on her scholarship, particularly investigating how to improve the fertility, conformation and genetics of Brahman cattle, preparation, handling and feeding of sale cattle and artificial insemination. Read Lorre’s report

Ashley Severin – Treasurer (1987 Scholar)Ashley is married to Lyndee and they are based at Curtin Springs Station, via Alice Springs where they manage a cattle station and Wayside Inn. Ashley is a life member of Nuffield Australia and was the first Northern Territory Nuffield Farming Scholar. He studied embryo transfer and saline irrigation, travelling to the UK, France and Israel. Read Ashley’s report

Queensland:

Jodie Redcliffe – Chair (2013 Scholar)Jodie, with her husband Wayne and family, owns and operates a commercial broiler operation with 250,000 birds. As part of her scholarship she studied alternatives for poultry house flooring, including litter reuse. This was a focus as a majority of the Australian broiler industry uses wood shavings as bedding material in poultry sheds, with the mixture of sawdust and manure that is generated then on-sold as fertiliser or further processed into a fertiliser mix. Read Jodie’s report

Nigel Corish – Vice Chair (2014 Scholar)Nigel is based at Goondiwindi. He studied Fertiliser Use Efficiency (FUE) in irrigated cotton crops. The family business growers irrigated cotton as the main crop with about 4000 ha grown annually. They also grow about 4000 ha of dryland cultivated crops, as well as operating a lamb feedlot and running Angus breeder cows. Nigel’s role is to manage and operate one of the properties and is also part of the Corish Farms management group, which manages the financial decisions across the businesses. Read Nigel’s report

Camilla Phillip – Secretary (2007 Scholar)
Camilla is a 2007 scholar and the primary focus of her study was to research supply chain efficiencies, particularly the growth of category management in the horticultural industry. She aimed to develop a clearer understanding of the theory behind category management and the benefits that could be derived from this theory by the horticultural industry and retailing sector. Read Camilla’s report

Adam Coffey – Treasurer (2016 Scholar)
Adam Coffey from Miriam Vale in Qld, is a 2016 Scholar who has been studying commercial cattle production and management tactics for rangeland and other marginal areas. Since relocating from the NT, Adam and his wife Jacynta have recently purchased their first family property and are in the process of re-developing it to run a cross bred cattle breeding & opportunistic trading enterprise.

South Australia:

Lachie Seears – Chair (2013 Scholar)Lachie Seears, manages a family farm at Lucindale in south-east SA, cropping wheat, barley, canola and broad beans. They also have irrigated speciality crops and run a sheep and cattle livestock enterprise. Lachie is a graduate of Marcus Oldham College where he studied an Advanced Diploma in Farm Management. Lachie investigated world’s best practice in supply chain management and value-adding of farm products on his Nuffield Scholarship as he recognised that many famers don’t have the knowledge or confidence to establish supply chain relationships. Read Lachie’s report

James Robertson – Vice Chair (2011 Scholar)James is married to Kerrie and they have two daughters. Their property, ‘Chowilla’, is located on the New South Wales and South Australia border, immediately north of the Murray River in a semi-arid rangeland zone. Their primary business is wool production, although in recent times, meat income has become a major part of the income. James studied Improving sheep efficiency through weaning nutrition – weaning protocols for better feed conversion. Read James’s report

Carly Bussenschutt – Secretary (2013 Scholar)Carly is married to Adam and they manage a 2000 hectare family farm on Kangaroo Island, producing prime lambs and running 200 Angus cross breeding cows. Recognising the critical role lamb weaning percentage plays in a successful prime lamb production system led Carly to her Nuffield research topic. She used her scholarship to investigate how lamb producers in other parts of the world manage and optimise the reproductive potential of their flock. Read Carly’s report

Dave Reily – Treasurer (2012 Scholar)Dave is based at Loxton in South Australia. He studied management of date palm plantations for premium date fruit production. With his family, Dave owns and operates a mixed horticulture enterprise. While they do grow wine grapes and pomegranates, their primary focus is on the production of premium table dates. The focus of his study was to increase his learning and expertise in the management of date palm plantations for premium date fruit production and to explore the markets for high value table dates. Read Dave’s Report

Tasmania:

Michael Chilvers – Chair (2012 Scholar)Michael Chilvers is married to Fiona and they have two children. They farm 1100 hectares at Nile, with 400 hectares of crops such as poppies, wheat, processing peas and lucerne under centre pivot irrigation. They also grow malt barley, canola and trade prime lambs. For his scholarship, Michael researched strategies to efficiently transition from a traditional family farming structure to a diversified agricultural business. Read Michael’s report

Greg Gibson – Vice Chair (2014 Scholar)Greg and his family manage a 530‐hectare intensive farming operation with a cropping program consisting of alkaloid poppies, onions, processing peas, broccoli and potatoes. Also grown are an array of seed crops. Their grazing program consists of an Angus cow herd of 170 head and a 5,000 fat lamb trading operation. Greg studied the latest drainage techniques, with an aim of increasing production on non‐performing ground through better water management. Read Greg’s report

Karen Brock – Secretary (2014 Scholar)With her husband, Karen owns and operates Brocklands Pty Ltd, a diversified horticultural business, supplying plants and tissue culture material to the soft berry fruit and truffle industries, operating a tissue culture laboratory and running a joint venture raspberry breeding program among other operations. Karen, through her Nuffield research, hoped to reduce the assessment time of soft berry fruit by developing a technique for placement of gene markers in the plant.

Robert Henry – Treasurer (1991 Scholar)Rob is married to Kathy and they farm an irrigated cropping and livestock enterprise near Cressy in Tasmania. Rob travelled on his Scholarship in 1991 and studied sustainable agricultural systems on light sandy soils with irrigation. He travelled to the UK, France, USA and Canada. Read Rob’s report

Victoria

David Drage – Chair (2009 Scholar)David and his wife Narelle live at Warracknabeal where they farm a mixed cropping and sheep enterprise. David studied the implications of carbon trading for broadacre agriculture, concluding that it is imperative that Australian agriculture maintain control of the soil carbon debate and the industry must cooperate with ruminant producers in other nations to see that this issue is controlled for the lowest impact on global ruminant producers. Read David’s report

Matthew Ipsen – Vice Chair (2013 Scholar)
Matthew Ipsen is based at Wareek in Victoria, and is a director of a private agricultural company with his parents, owning and operating 820 hectares. The major enterprise is wool along with sheep meat, hay and cereals. They also own and manage a merino sheep stud and contract harvest. Matthew used his scholarship to investigate world’s best practice in sheep reproduction and lamb survival. Read Matthew’s report

Emma Germano – Secretary (2014 Scholar)
From Mirboo North in Victoria, Emma is Business Development and Operations Manager for the family business supplying cauliflower and cabbage crops on 120 hectares. They grow 50,000 cauliflower per week for six months of the year and also grows broad beans, cabbage, and Chinese cabbage periodically during the six‐month harvest period. Emma researched global export opportunities for vegetables and other primary produce.

Andrew Nagorcka – Treasurer (2006 Scholar)
Andrew is based at Yatchaw with his wife Kylie and family. The family property is a mixed cropping and grazing enterprise of 1,500 hectares and a relatively reliable average rainfall of 700mm. Andrew studied improving a high rainfall cropping system using a more biological and sustainable approach. He also had a focus on government policies in agriculture. Read Andrew’s report.

Western Australia

Cameron Tubby – Chair (2009 Scholar)Cameron is married to Teresa and they farm with their family at Morowa. They farm South African meat sheep and dryland cropping. Cameron studied ‘Drought Proofing the Low Rainfall Agricultural Zones of WA – Alternative farming systems for low rainfall, semi-arid agricultural regions of Western Australia’ Read Cameron’s report

Nick Gillett – Vice Chair (2014 Scholar)Nick is co‐owner and principle manager of the family‐owned farming operation at Bencubbin in the low‐rainfall eastern wheatbelt of WA. They crop over 6000 hectares of wheat and barley and also run some sheep on the remainder of their property. Nick studied innovative ways of improving crop germination and yield in a drying climate and how to improve wheat germination for better plant establishment in marginal conditions.

Kate Mason – Secretary (2013 Scholar)
Kate is based at Kojonup and works in a family farming business. They have a 1500 acre farm with sheep, organically certified oats that are processed and packaged for human consumption and supplied to wholesalers. They also have a grain cleaning business, a small farm shop and 4,000 free range laying hens, marketing the eggs directly to retailers. Kate researched sustainable egg production and how that fits with consumer expectations.

Matthew Hill – Treasurer (2012 Scholar)Matthew Hill lives at Esperance in Western Australia with his wife Angela and family. He received a 2013 Nuffield Scholarship supported by GRDC and focused his research on harvest residue management including control of weed seeds and the potential for value-adding chaff. He manages a family farming enterprise totalling 13,000 hectares of owned and lease land. They crop up to 11,000 hectares annually and they also run a self-replacing merino ewe flock and 130 Angus cows Read Matt’s report

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Nuffield Australia Patron

His Excellency General, the Honourable Sir Peter Cosgrove AK MC, Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia